Research Outline
Kukai, a Buddhist monk in the early Heian period, was not only the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, but also a civil engineer who directed the renovation of Mannoike Pond. Why is a Buddhist monk deeply involved in the foundation of Japanese civil engineering history?
Why was Kukai able to lead a difficult construction project to success? A clue can be found in the philosophy of Levi Strauss, a cultural anthropologist who advocated structuralism.
His masterpiece, "Wild Thoughts," presents a horizon where the structure of knowledge of "uncivilized societies," which differs from modern rationalism, and cutting-edge science meet.
In today's "Anthropocene," we would like to consider the techniques of knowledge that allow us humans to relate to nature through Kukai's "Esoteric Buddhism.